Lead Hardness

I need to cast some bullets and I'm in a quandry about what alloy to use. Last year sometime, I stopped by a printing house and asked the guys there about linotype. They gave me half a 5-gallon bucket of what they called "waste". It looks like little used pieces of linotype and on some of them you can see letters or punctuation along the edge.



The only problem is, I don't think it's real linotype. I measured it using a Lee Hardness tester and it measured at about Brinell 16.6 (the measured diameter was .056). I measured it twice and came up with the same measurement each time, then I measure some pure lead to make sure I was measuring correctly. The pure lead measured about BNH 7, so I know I'm close.

As I remember, the Brinell Hardness of various alloys are about:

Linotype = BNH 22
Lyman #2 alloy = BNH 16
Standard wheelweights = BNH 10 or 12
Pure lead = BNH 6-8

So, if those BNH numbers still hold, what the guys at the print shop gave me is an alloy they use that closely approximates Lyman #2. It ain't linotype, but I'm not complaining. I'm going to use this metal to make bullets for the .357 magnum, both for the pistol and for the rifle. It's going to be a 180 grain semi-wadcutter hunting bullet with a wide meplat.

I'm wondering if that alloy would be too hard for hunting bullets, or if I need to mix it with some pure lead? Or mix it with some wheelweight metal? Is Lyman #2 too hard to use as a hunting bullet?

I need to cross-post this question over at the Cast Bullet Assoc forum.